The Bittersweet, an all female rock band, is just starting to make a name for themselves when tragedy strikes. When going to an event, their van plummets down a mountain and they are stranded in the cold and fight for survival. After finding an abandoned cabin they think they will survive but one by one they are met with death as only one survives. What really happened to The Bittersweet was it all a tragic accident or was something more sinister at play?

I really enjoyed the journey this book took me on. It delved deep into female friendships and the complexity of fame.

A crash in a blizzard is the catalyst for someone to crack and....murder. This moves back and forth in time to tell the story of Madison and Vienna, who meet in high school, form a duo, and then later expand into a pop rock band. They're on their way to a gig when the accident leaves someone dead, someone injured, and Madison and Vienna trying to survive. This deserves to be read without spoilers because it's got some good twists. The use of media enhances the mystery a bit. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read for-dare I suggest it- travel.

Two best friends form a female pop rock band together but on their way to an event their van veers off the road during a blizzard.

Yellowjacket fans… the book is here! It reminded me so much of Yellowjackets. I loved the survival aspect of the story, although it did not seem to last as long as I thought it would. I also loved the earlier looks at Madison and Vienna and would have loved even more of their time together as youths. The investigation aspect of it started to drag for me but I really wanted to find out what had happened.

“Tragedies and trauma such as this can bring people together as much as it can rip them apart.”

Only One Survives comes out 7/16.

4.5 STARS - What a wild ride!!!

Only One Survives is an addictive, bingeable read that's a great blend of genres and themes. There's tense suspense, family dysfunction, the adverse side of fame and toxic relationships, oh my!

I got some wonderful vibes of a few other books I've enjoyed in the past. The focus on a band reminded me of Daisy Jones and the Six, the darker side of fame hinted at The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and the devastating wintery car crash was reminiscent of the tense and emotional book, In An Instant. I loved the overall tone of this story and how perfectly McKinnon blends these themes into a story that totally captivated me.

The story is told using two timelines - the tragic wintery car accident that strikes a young female band who is on the cusp of making it big, and an earlier timeline that shows how Vienna and Madison's friendship began and continued as they started to make their mark on the music world.

I won't go into details and ruin it for anyone, just know that this story is a fantastic blend of psychological suspense, dysfunctional and toxic relationships with shocking revelations and jaw-dropping twists will keep you quickly turning the pages.

This is a riveting story with flawed characters that digs deep into the dark and addictive side of fame and is McKinnon's best book to date!

Note: Make sure you check out the Only One Survives playlist on Spotify!

Books mentioned above:
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by TJR
In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for my complimentary advanced copies which were given in exchange for my honest review.

Big question: What price are you willing to pay for fame? This book was so addictive, it was hard to put down! It explores the human desire for stardom and fame; and how well do you know your friends…and yourself?? I was fully engaged in this book from beginning to end. I will say that it took a turn out of the blue… I was reading along & then a single unexpected confession gets dropped and the whole book takes a turn. It wasn’t a bad thing, just something kind of subtle; but a huge deal. I re-read the sentence a few times to make sure I knew what was happening. Truly, the subtleness was amazing!
I enjoyed the division between fan bases (team Vienna and team Madison), as that does happen in real life. However, a large section of the book revolves around that and it got tiring. I enjoyed how the author portrayed multiple characters as being suspect for “wrong-doings”, it definitely made it harder to figure out who was the murderer. The last “twist” was very predictable. In the end, the book started dragging on, it was still engaging but too long. The ending wrapped up loose ends fairly nicely.
What I learned: sometimes our dreams create our demise.
I do recommend this book!
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC via NetGalley!

Another one you can't put down!

Two girls from wildly different backgrounds become friends after a "bad girl" incident the first day of their last year of Highschool. One from privilege - one who's lived a truly horrible existence due to the mom from hell!

How they get from there to the next hit girl band and their fall from unexpected fame are what make this a great story! Lovers of music, twisted friendships and great mystery should love this book!

A definite must read!

Only One Survives was an entertaining and thrilling ride! This book is filled with twists and turns and you never really know where they will come from. The first part of the book focuses on the past of Vienna and Madison’s toxic friendship and then on the accident that has resulted in multiple deaths. The second half of the book twists everything you thought you knew and sends you on a page turning journey to really discovered what happened in that cabin. This was impossible to put down and I will be picking up more Hannah Mary McKinnon books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Okay, I couldn’t put this one down and finished it in one day! Another great thriller by the amazing Hannah Mary McKinnon.

A story about an-all female band, short tense chapters, easy to read writing style, unexpected twists (especially the one half-way through) reveals and misdirection, and a satisfying ending all made this one I just flew through. I couldn’t stop turning the pages! Who to trust? Who to believe?

I also enjoyed how the story looked at the price of fame, family dysfunction, complicated female friendships, and the insidious spread, salaciousnesses and divisiveness of social media.

Make sure to check this one out!

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Mira for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

Only One Survives is a fun take on the final girl trope, combined with a locked room thriller and a little dash of fame.

Vienna is part of up and coming girl rock group The Bittersweet when the band ends in tragedy- their vehicle goes off the road during a blizzard, killing one member and injuring another. The remaining girls attempt to take shelter in an abandoned home they find while searching for help, but things continue to go wrong. The media attention is swift, with social media users taking sides and posting their thoughts in the accident and deaths.

I enjoyed this one, particularly when I got to part two and things got twisty. Loved the inclusion of radio interviews, and I thought the storyline about the girls starting their band was an entertaining premise leading up to the accident. This is a tough one to review without giving anything away, and would be best gone in to blind!

Read if you like:
⭐️ Unreliable narrators
⭐️ Slow burn thrillers
⭐️ Toxic friendships
⭐️ Twisty reads
⭐️ Rock n roll / musician main characters

Thank you to HTP books / Mira for the gifted arc. All opinions are my own.

A girl group (plus a videographer) get into a bad wreck on a snowy night in a rural area. The ones that survive manage to find a cabin for refuge but then more of them keep dying. After rescue, Vienna, the one remaining band member, finds her fame growing.

I find this one slow for a thriller. There was a good twist in the middle of the book which did retrospectively make the first part more interesting although not wildly enough so to make up for the slow pace. The twist at the end though I thought was really predictable. I just was missing the suspense and thrills I wanted from this one.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Only One Survies” by Hannah Mary McKinnon is a thrill of a roller coaster ride of a read. While one of the reviews suggests this is for fans of “Daisy Jones and the Six,” I’d say that while it is about the forming of an all female retro rock band, that’s about the only similarity. This book is divided into two timelines - before the accident and after. The reader follows Vienna through her life - her not great upbringing, meeting her best friend and eventual band-mate Madison, moving to New York City, playing and writing music, and being on the cusp of stardom — before the accident occurs. After the accident, Vienna tries to cope with losing her bandmates and her missing best friend … and avoid suspicion from the police. As the story unfolds the reader learns that all that is presented is not quite as it seems. This was a rather quick and engrossing read and I liked the twists and turns (though some was predictable, but it didn’t deter from my enjoyment of the overall story).

Only One Survives is a thrilling exploration of how far people will go to be famous, and the toll it takes on friendships, and in this case with deadly consequences. I devoured this book and just when I thought I had it all figured out a new twist would emerge.

Read this if you like:
-multiple timelines
-unreliable narrator
-rock and roll scene with an all girl band
-snippets of media as added storytelling device
-toxic female friendships
-the price of fame
-people with secrets and lies and are not who they appear to be
-survival after car crash in snowstorm trope
-creepy isolated, dilapidated cabin in a snowstorm
-twists and turns with a satisfying ending

My rating: 4 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this eARC that will be released July 16 2024.

Only One Survives by Hannah Mary McKinnon is a captivating & thrilling mystery that will grab your attention within the first chapter. It is a fascinating mix of almost horror meets mystery meets thriller plus add in a wild adventure of a successful all girl band turned tragedy.

Only One Survives is great for fans of…
🎵 Thrilling Mystery
🎵 Multiple Timelines
🎵 True Crime Reporting in the Internet Age
🎵 All Girl Band
🎵 Twists & Turns

I give a round of applause for the fascinating mix of music & thrilling mystery that will captivate readers. I love a good twisted mystery & this totally delivers on that.

If you enjoy music, mystery, twists & thrillers, Only One Survives is a great recommendation!


Massive thanks to NetGalley & MIRA
for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Thank you to Hannah Mary McKinnon, Netgalley and HTP/MIRA for this ARC - one of my favorite reads this year!!

”Beware: some liars tell the truth…”

All Vienna Taylor wants to do is play the drums and break into the music business. Her best friend, singer and guitarist Madison Pierce, is more about fame that comes along with making music. As they hone their crafts and add three members to their band, they are on the precipice of something huge. With a hit song and record deal on the horizon, when the girl band is invited to a party with other musicians, they have to go - even though the blizzard conditions make it less than ideal to travel. Their car goes careening off the road, killing one girl and leaving two others wounded. The remaining girls hole up in a secluded cabin to wait out the storm. But Vienna and the band’s documentary assistant are the only people who make it out of the cabin alive.

When I tell you I devoured this book, I mean I literally could not put it down! Told over dual timelines, Vienna’s back story is laid out in the form of her memoir, as she and Libby (their friend who was filming a documentary about them) try to piece together what happened that night in the cabin. The public at large - which was quite taken with the girl band - all have their own opinions too. People quickly and vocally pick sides - either Team Madison or Team Vienna. That added such a fun extra layer to this story! With nonstop action and revelations, the pacing was pure perfection. And the final twists and turns had my jaw dropping!

We have been talking about this book quite a lot at The Pulse - it has been such a fun one to discuss! “Only One Survives” release July 16, 2024. This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

This book was impossible to put down. I loved the flashbacks between what was currently happening. I just felt like the book was too long and the twists were just a little much. Bit the first 60% of the book was fabulous.

I'd been very much looking forward to reading Hannah Mary McKinnon's books having heard great things about "The Revenge List".

More than anything, this book is about the friendship between musicians Vienna Taylor and Madison Pierce and the events leading up to an accident with their band in which one of them survives. I enjoyed the first half of the book which I thought was laying great groundwork, getting us to know the characters very well and building the suspense.

But the second half was long and tiring. I started to see what was happening and found things to be repetitive and dull. If the book had kept up the narrative pace of the first half, we could have something really special here.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the e-copy!

I had to DNF this book at 28%

I was trying to force myself to keep reading and that's just not an enjoyable time. It's a little hard to get through to be honest.

The beginning hooked me and then we started to get into the characters more. Mainly about Madison from Vienna's perspective. I like Vienna but something about Madison makes me uncomfortable. Perhaps that's what the author wants but I couldn't just keep reading and enjoying it. I felt the dynamic was strange, like Vienna was hopelessly in love with Madison and couldn't see how flawed she was. It seemed childish and foolish to maintain a friendship that controls you through money while being wholly ungrateful for their own life. It's sad to watch unfold and I just couldn't care about them any more.

Thanks for letting me read it, just not for me.

After a car crash on a snowy road leaves all 5 members of the newly formed band The Bittersweet stranded in a cabin Vienna fights to survive and keep her friends alive.

This book highlights the flaws of fame and by switching between past and present lets the story naturally unwravel.

The plot was gripping and I was totally engrossed in the characters. A great thriller read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I am truly sorry, but there is just not enough disbelief in the world for me to suspend in order to buy into everything that happened in this book. Every single twist was beyond farfetched and ridiculous. I cannot recommend this one at all.

This was an ARC from NetGalley. That being said, this book is in need of some heavy editing. The typos and formatting errors made it very hard to get through this book. Then moving on to the plot, it felt far too long for the story being told. The plot twist happened in the middle of the story, and was very difficult to but into. It It didn't feel unique or believable. There needed to be more revisiting the first half, and applying the new point of view. Instead, it felt like two different stories. This needs a lot of work to be memorable to its audience.#netgalley #harlequin #bittersweet #onlyonesurvives #thriller #mystery